FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates in general to respirators and in particular to a new and useful protective breathing device with regeneration of the breathed air, whose regeneration cartridge is arranged in an air flow between a breath intake and a breathing bag.
A similar protective breathing device is described in DE-OS No. 34 42 882.
In the known protective breathing device, the exhaled air is guided through a regeneration cartridge into a following breathing bag. During the regeneration, CO.sub.2 is bound and oxygen is given off. The heat of the regeneration is liberated, warming the cartridge. In the next inhalation from the breathing bag, the inhaled air is again conveyed from the breathing bag through the cartridge to the mouthpiece (back-and-forth breathing). The inhaled air is warmed by travelling through the cartridge and must therefore be taken across a following cooling surface before being breathed.
A disadvantage of the known device is the fact that only a relatively small surface is available for cooling the heated inhalation air, if the construction of the device is to be as small and light as possible.
When breathing forcefully through the known protective breathing device, the inhaled air is warmed so much that the cooling surface can no longer provide adequate cooling. Moreover, a heavily heated regeneration cartridge is not sufficiently protected against touching from the outside, since the cartridge cannot be covered on all side by the cooling surface.